Just recently decided that i needed a new upgrade on one of my study office monitors, and using the same model in the office at work as well, i decided to give the HP Compaq LA2306x 23" Widescreen monitor. At only £158 i thought this was a bargain and snapped it up.

When first unpacking the box, you notice the care that has been used when securing the monitor inside the box its self. The monitor is covered in a protective plastic wrapping with padded bubble wrap. This is then secured in a white foam mould to stop the monitor from moving and becoming damage during storage and movement. Finally the leads were also packaged in plastic bags, and secured in their own part of the mould. There was also the manuals and warranty information stored in the box as well.

After the initial un boxing of the monitor you can see its sleek, modern black design. You can also see it's a 23" Widescreen LCD display monitor measures 55.2cm x 24.9cm x 35.1cm (With stand). It also has a variety of adjustments such as 'Height adjustment, pivot (rotation), swivel and tilt."

After setting up the monitor you can feel it's fairly light weighing in at only 6.8kg. The monitor its self is powered by a AC 120/230 V (50/60 Hz) which plugs straight into your UK plug socket. Which makes this monitors localisation English/United Kingdom. The monitor takes up approximately 33 Watts of energy which makes this a green monitor, which comes with a ENERGY star qualified sticker and EPEAT Gold.

The monitor connects using a DVI-D, VGA Display port. Which makes it a very easy to connect using a plug and play method, which makes it simple to use. This powerful connection gives a image contrast ratio 1000:1/1000000:1 (dynamic). The monitor has an amazing response time of 5 ms making it very quick. It also has a powerful colour display with a WLED backlight and TFT Active matrix. For the £158 price tag, the image quality was over whelming. Finally the image brightness is around the 250 cd/m2.

Even though this monitor is said to be compatible with windows 7, i've tested it on Windows Vista and Windows XP Home and i have had no problems. For the £158 price tag on this monitor i can't believe the superb image quality that the monitor boasts which can be adjusted and fined tuned for your liking with the settings buttons located on the front of the monitor. Finally it also as a side USB hub port to allow for another usb port at your disposal. Overall i recommend this monitor to anyone wanting high amazing image display for a low price and gives off a stylish sleek design!!